The Eldest Curse is Love
by LilHobbitBookWorm
Summary: What have I done? She thought to herself as she held his lifeless body in her arms as his form morphed in front of her eyes. It was too late. The curse had spread through her like hot blood and had now infected the man she loved more than life itself.
1. Chapter 1

He walked through the barren fields that sat on top of a plateau, shuffling his sandaled feet through the dust. Looking up to the clouds he heaved a heavy sigh, his rib cage rattling with the air entering his lungs. Fresh mountain air was the sweetest, and as it entered his lungs he could taste the tsubaki flowers.

The man's feet played a metronome rhythm on the soil as he walked; his mind trying not to concentrate on the two sets of heavy metal on his hip that felt even heavier with the invisible bloodshed he knew had collected on each blade. It was because of his blade that his entire world had collapsed. A correspondence had been sent by his eldest child, a daughter, telling him of his wife's death because of the famine in their home town. Now he was just a Ronin, a wandering samurai, trying to forever make his way back home to his children in order to bury his wife properly.

Most of the time he kept his head down, focused on the moving earth beneath his feet so that it looked as if the earth was moving and he was standing still, but today the world beckoned for him to look at it, to look up.

"Don't come any closer!" A shrill voice cried. A young woman with short black hair, covered in a black kimono that was ripped and torn all over was standing before him. Her bare feet were covered in dirt as she slowly walked back towards the edge of the cliff.

"My name is Arigatona Sohmatzu. I am just passing through. I do not want any trouble." The man's voice was soft but strong and deep as he spoke to the woman.

"Seriously? I don't care about what you're doing here. If you are just passing through then just move right on along there." She waved her hand in front of her in a patronizing gesture as she took another step towards the edge.

"I can't do that." Arigatona walked forward a little bit more, his food purposefully kicking a rock and sending it flying over the edge of the cliff. The woman leaned over and watched the rock before looking back at Arigatona and crossing her arms.

"Point taken, but that isn't going to change my mind." She snapped back before taking a leap off of the cliff, her eyes closed, he body poised for death.

Arigatona heaved a heavy sigh before running off of the cliff as if he were diving into a pool. He reached out his calloused fingers and secured the woman's arm, forcing her body on top of his. He watched as her eyes opened and the crimson fired irises settled on his.

"You really are thick headed, you know that? You said that you didn't want any trouble and now you are going to die for your efforts of trying to not get into trouble. Congratulations on being an idiot." The woman rattled off so frantically that Arigatona hadn't time to catch everything as he shifted their position in the air, landing feet first on the ground, working his legs so that his waist took the brunt of the impact, leaving the young woman and himself very much alive.

"You were saying?" He flashed her a casual smile and began walking away, his gaze once again shifting down towards his feet, the scent of flowers once again illuminating his senses. He took a deep breath as he lifted his head, catching a familiar scent in the breeze.

"Just who do you think you are, sir? I was in the middle of a very important mission and you just happened to postpone it." The woman was following him, which made the corners of his lips curl into a proud grin.

"I am Arigatona Sohmatzu. Suicide is never a mission. You will not die by your own hand now."

"You are an arrogant bastard. How do you know that I won't try something like that again? You don't even know me." The woman had caught up to him and was trying to stay in step with his brisk pace. Arigatona noticed that she was probably not even seventeen, though the dark circles around her flame red eyes would suggest that she was much older.

"Give me your name."

"What?"

"Give me your name. Then I will know you." Arigatona stretched his arms above his head, his spine cracking as it lengthened. He could feel the young girl stare at him.

"Who do you think you are? You can't just know someone by their name." She shrugged and rolled her eyes when Arigatona muttered a throaty chuckle, "Fine. My name is Tiako. Just Tiako."

Arigatona returned his gaze to the dirt road, satisfied with her answer. There was a reason why she did not have a last name. Either this girl was an orphan and had never had her own surname, or she had abandoned that surname because of some tragedy. He didn't want to push her, though he hoped that if she was going to continue to follow him he would eventually get some answers. Throughout his life he had learned never to question someone's past, for their past was the link to their soul and their heart. It was almost like an extravagant key meant to open a very specific lock. Finding the lock was the easy part, but finding the correct key proved to be a challenge better served when spending much time with the person who harbored their hidden key safely tucked away.

"So you said your name was Arigatona, right? Do you think that I could just call you Ariga, or Tona, or Ari?" Tiako finally broke the silence, crossing her arms in front of her torso. She was looking up at the sky and studying the clouds.

"Arigatona is my name. Use it properly." The man saw the young woman's mouth drop before she shook off the expression, crossing her arms in front of her chest and heaving a heavy sigh, "You do not have any reason to follow me."

"Despite the fact that I am still going to kill myself one of these days, I've decided that you deserve my company for the time being. I might as well express my thanks at what you obviously thought was kindness, and then I will be on my way to the grave as soon as I have thanked you to my own satisfaction." Arigatona looked up towards the heavens, mirroring the path of the young woman's eyes with his own.

"Tiako is a lovely name. It suits you." His gruff voice split the sky, and he was sure that he heard the voice of the woman walking next to him crack a little before he observed her cheeks turn the faintest shade of a cherry blossom.

IIIII

A/N – Thanks to all of you that have read this far. This is just a random idea that I had. Unfortunately our favorite characters may not play a part in this story as it is somewhat of a prequel, so we will see how this goes. I am going to try to focus more on my other stories rather than this one unless I get a fair amount of reviews for this story because it really isn't worth focusing on this one if no one is going to give feedback. Yeah, that is kind of harsh, but I am a firm believer in reviews and never read something that I do not review. So, I am going to try and get five reviews before I post a second chapter. We will see what happens though. Thank you guys for reading this so far, and I hope that ideas come for it as well as the motivation for those ideas.


	2. Chapter 2

"Are we there _yet_!" Tiako growled as she dragged her feet through the grass, flattening the green stalks in her wake.

"28."

"28? What are you talking about old man?" Arigatona turned and grinned back at the young woman following him. They had been walking for more than a day, and the village that Arigatona had grown up in was only a few miles away, and a mile outside of that, hidden deep in the mountains, was his family.

"You have asked that question twenty-eight times. Your persistence rivals even my smallest children. For the record, I am not old." The air changed as crimson eyes were now settled before his. Tiako was walking backwards and in front of the Ronin, her thin eyes glaring at him.

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Tiako crossed her arms and continued to trot backwards, trying to get a rise out of the man before her. He just looked at her with eyes colored like dried clay.

"32." Arigatona took in a heavy breath to keep himself from laughing as Tiako let out an exasperated gasp, crossing her arms and stopping in front of him. Without any hesitation, the man altered his course and walked around the young woman, continuing on his way and leaving her behind.

"Hey! Wait up old man!" Tiako yelled, running after Arigatona. It was almost surprising to her that he could move so fast, but as he had jumped off of a cliff and landed on his feet, his current level of athleticism was most likely higher than she believed.

"Again, I am not old. I am only in my thirty-eighth year."

"And I am in my sixteenth year, so to me you are an ugly old man." Tiako stuck out her tongue only to have it held outside of her mouth by two strong fingers, "Wah 'he 'ell aw you don!"

"Mind your manners." Arigatona let Tiako's tongue go, giving her a pat on the back and continuing to walk forward. The young woman began shuffling her feet once again, whistling to herself.

They passed by a small town, the townspeople looking suspiciously at the two of them as they passed. Tiako was used to getting stared at because of her fiery red eyes that were extremely abnormal for her people. Yet, as the young woman looked around she noticed that it really wasn't her that everyone seemed so preoccupied with. It was Arigatona Sohmatzu that was drawing the attention from the crowd. She picked up her pace so that she was standing next to the older man, shifting him a sideways glance, noticing that his eyes were close and his lips tight.

"Poor man, that Arigatona Sohmatzu. Did you hear that his wife passed away from starvation not too long ago?" Tiako overheard a woman say to one of the shop owners as they walked past, stopping and hiding behind a wooden pole to listen to their conversation. She noticed that the old man had stopped as well, but he turned and walked to a shop vendor who was selling eel.

"I told him when he moved his family into that mountain shrine that during the winters it can be difficult to get provisions. With the war it became near impossible to get them supplies." The shopkeeper shook his head, his tone admonishing. _How degenerate, these stupid village people._ Tiako thought, spitting on the ground when she realized that the gossipers were too far away for her spit to reach.

"I even heard that the eldest children gave up eating for themselves in order to try and sustain their mother in her last few days. How sad to think that children would risk so much to help their mother." Another woman joined the conversation, the three of their eyes glaring at the back of Arigatona.

"To think that a man would go off fighting in a war, leaving his wife and twelve children, including a one year old babe, at home without word of his whereabouts for the past two years. In a way it serves him right." The first woman shook her head as she spat out her words.

"You don't even know him!" Tiako ran into the middle of the street, yelling at the three clucking hens.

"I wonder if this is his strumpet." The shopkeeper said, grinning at Tiako and rubbing the hair on his chin. Tiako's red eyes flamed as she lunged at the man, knocking him to the ground and driving a knuckle into his eye amidst shouts of 'how beastly' and 'what indecency!' _Who were they calling indecent?_ Her mind screamed as she drove her knee into the man's groin. _They are the indecent ones_.

"Tiako. Come." Arigatona's firm voice echoed through the streets, moving everything into a silent stillness. Tiako stood up and kicked the shopkeeper one more time for good measure before catching up to the older man, walking beside him, a thick grin on her face, "Are you pleased with yourself?"

"Didn't you hear what those idiots were saying about you? They should have just kept their fat mouths shut." Tiako tried to ignore the patronizing look that Arigatona was giving her with those light brown eyes as she looked sideways towards the ground, spitting once again.

"Though painful to hear, their words are truth." Arigatona looked up towards the sun and sighed, "Our journey is almost at an end. You would do well to stay with me; however, you may go on your way if you desire."

"Old man, I told you that I was going to give you my company, and I don't back down on a promise. You're stuck with me." Tiako leaned back, crossing her arms behind her head so that it felt as if she was relaxing, "So, if what those people said was true, then you have twelve kids? Who would have thought an old man like you would have had that much energy."

"As I mentioned before, I do not take kindly to being called old." Arigatona lifted a fist as he talked and brought it down upon Tiako's head in a reprimand. The young girl fought back a laugh and instead growled through her teeth at the man before looking up at the sky and whistling once more.

"Don't think that just because you have children around that I won't try and commit suicide again. You never know when I'll get my hands on some poisonous herb or a sharp object. You having a family doesn't change that."

"Think what you wish." Arigatona grinned, pulling out one of his katanas and swiping it through their air for good measure before sheathing it again. _Then again_, Tiako thought to herself, grinning, _sticking around this guy might be kind of interesting as long as no one gets too attached._

IIIII

A/N – So the second chapter. Sorry it has taken so long but I still don't have the best plot idea for this one right now, plus I am working on another Ouran fic (though that one also doesn't have much of a plot yet). I am going to try and get this story and another story finished before fall semester begins because once college life begins again I am not going to have time to write. Anyways, I hope that you all enjoy this second chapter. Don't forget to review!


	3. Chapter 3

Arigatona pulled his arms out of his haori and walked behind Tiako who was huddled as close to the fire as she could safely get, gently placing the light cloak over the shivering girl and returning to his spot by the fire. _She has unusually broad shoulders for a girl_ he pondered, reaching down to his side and picking up a deceased fish, looking up to the heavens and thanking the spirit of the fish for the sustenance before spearing the fish with a sharp stick.

"Buddhist? That figures," Tiako's snappy reply seemed to bounce of the older man and fling right back at her, for she turned her eyes to the side and patted a small rock with her foot. Arigatona suppressed a smirk, knowing that any emotion from him would probably provoke the high strung young woman before him, "I'm sorry. My mouth kind of runs away from me sometimes. I guess it fits my personality though because I am usually running away from something."

"Running is a type of catharsis. It allows for both escape and return. It is quick and painless. But if you are always running then you will become tired and the days will turn into years." Arigatona pulled the eel that he had purchased and wound it around another branch, cementing that in the fire pit as well.

"Hey, why are you cooking fish and eel? You having some kind of party or something?"

"The eel is for you. You do not like fish. The last meal we had you smashed into the sand when you believed I was not looking. By that I gathered that you do not like fish." Arigatona poked the fire with another stick, lifting his eyes to meet the crimson ones of the young girl who had suddenly burst into tears, "Tiako, do not cry, young one. I did not mean to offend."

"It's not that," Tiako pulled the haori around her even tighter and looked into the fire, her tears glistening, "It's that I don't like eel either. I'm sorry! I'll eat it; I promise!"

Arigatona chuckled for a few seconds as he slipped his hand down into his satchel and pulled out a small package wrapped in white paper and tossed it to Tiako. He watched as she opened the package with wide eyes, the only trace of tears left on her face were the streaks running down her dirt stained face.

"I guessed that you may not like any seafood, so I also purchased some plum onigiri. The eel and fish will stay fresher if it is cooked. It will lift the spirits of my children." The man smiled a distant smile, prodding the fire with a larger branch. It was hard for him to feel any distain towards the people in the town they had just crossed through. While he was surprised that the overzealous and young Tiako would have come to his defense, he was expecting those words to come flying at him, and her interference was not necessary.

"See, old man, this is why I can't believe those people in that stupid town. They have to know that you would never intentionally hurt your family. It's not like it is your fault that…"

"What of your family?" Arigatona cut her off, pulling the meat from the fire and carefully placing it on some cloth so that it would cool, "They are probably worried about you."

"I have no family. My mother threw herself into a river when I was five, and my father was killed by our village when I was eleven. I've been on my own every since, trying to stay away from people. I can't get close to anyone." Tiako looked down at her hands that held the onigiri, gently prodding the plum with one of her fingers before popping it off of the rice and placing it in her mouth.

Arigatona looked over at the girl, her dark hair swinging softly to the side in the breeze. Her unusual crimson eyes quivering. He stood and made his way around the fire, softly setting himself down beside the young girl.

"Loneliness affects us all. While under the orders of the Shogun I killed many men with skills that I had only used to protect those dear to me. The horror of seeing the light leave another human's eyes leaves one feeling incredibly alone." At his words, Tiako grabbed Arigatona around the middle and buried her face into his chest, weeping. _From such a strong girl, this is unexpected_ Arigatona observed as he wrapped his strong arms around the girl and closing his eyes.

IIIII

"College girls, college girls, all for me, college girls!"

"Shigure." Akito growled as she turned her head, looking back at the hound-dog who was singing to himself as he straightened his tie. She rolled her eyes at him as she slipped into a white button down shirt.

"To think that our little Yuki is already graduating from college. It seems like it was only yesterday that…ouch. You're so mean to me." Shigure tried to form his face into a pout, but gave up as soon as Akito turned abruptly, making sure that her long mane of silky black hair smacked him in the face.

It had been four years since she had let them all go, and the moments of expected loneliness lasted a much shorter period of time than she had thought. Everyone was able to go their separate ways because the curse connecting them had been broken, but they all were still connected even when so far apart. Akito remembered the first time that Tohru had called her, inviting Akito and Shigure to go to the hot springs with her and Kyo. She not only was shocked at being asked to vacation with Tohru, but she was also surprised that she was able to beat Kyo at every game of ping pong that they played, and Kyo didn't seem like he resented her at all, except for the humiliating losses.

"Did you have another one of those weird dreams last night?" Shigure asked, walking behind the woman and wrapping his arms around her, leaning his chin onto her head.

"Yes, and it felt just as real as the other ones have, almost like a memory. Like the shared memory we all had about the curse. I don't really understand." Akito grabbed one of Shigure's hands and brought it to her lips.

"Well, I did find something out the other day about them. Apparently the name Sohmatzu was the original form of the Sohma family's surname. So maybe there is a reason you are having these dreams. Either way, we need to stop standing around here or we're going to be late to the ceremony!" Shigure twisted his wrist in the air flamboyantly and grinned, earning himself a quick smack to the stomach.

He was right. There was no need to worry about the dreams whatsoever, even if Arigatona Sohmatzu was a distant relative.


	4. Chapter 4

"Shigure! Akito! Over here!" Tohru Honda's sweet voice echoed over the field that the graduation ceremony was going to take place on. Akito smiled at the younger woman, walking towards the pale arm that was waving in her direction and, once arriving next to the girl, linking her own arm with the one previously waving.

"It's been a long time, Tohru." Shigure sauntered up to the girl and bowed slightly, "Hello, Kyo."

The orange haired man just nodded, crossing one leg over the other and immersing himself in the graduation program.

"Oh come on Kyokyo, can't you just say hello to us." Akito taunted, sitting next to the young man, placing her hand on his knee, and batting her eyelashes at him. She had begun calling him Kyokyo after she found out from Kagura that it bothered him.

"Dammit Akito! I liked it better when you were a sadist with a god-complex!" Kyo's face turned red as he grabbed Akito's wrist and flung it off of his leg. While she was no longer who she was, and she didn't feel the aching need to draw everyone towards herself by any means necessary, she realized that she liked playing the sadist by playing as many practical jokes on the people around her.

"Well, to be fair, she was technically 'god' for most of her life." Shigure astutely noted, tilting his head to the side and closing his eyes. Akito knew that look. It was the look that he had whenever he was trying to make the other person feel dumber than he was. Though Shigure was a brilliant man, the rarity of him showing anything other than the persona of a court jester or a perverted old man was rare.

Throughout the small exchange Tohru Honda was trying not to laugh, but the way her large brown eyes became even larger and the way her little shoulders bobbed made it hard to ignore. Tohru was the woman who made Akito realize what it felt like to have a true friend, a friend who didn't simply stand by Akito because he/she was afraid of her. It also made her realize that she had always had a friend like that, but that she spent much effort to try and push him away so thoroughly. Shigure. Shigure had been her constant. The man that she had loved; the man who she hurt over and over again.

"Why is it that you can never be nice to anyone you stupid cat!" Akito turned away from her inward thoughts as Yuki came up behind Kyo, batting him on the head with a graduation cap. Kyo hopped up and turned to face Yuki, irritation radiating between the two of them.

"It's good to see you, you damn rat." Kyo grinned and extended his hand.

"Likewise, stupid cat." Yuki took it and the two young men shook hands. Akito knew that Tohru had something to do with the two of them getting along better, but she also knew that both of these boys had felt complete isolation at her hands, and that that isolation brought them together in many ways.

"Yuki, I'm so proud of you." Akito reached forward and awkwardly pulled Yuki into a hug. He had grown taller since entering college, broader as well. His shoulders felt like they were much stronger than they were before. He had also grown his hair out, making him look even more like Ayame than he already did.

"That means a lot, coming from you." Yuki's response was a bit colder than Akito had expected, but was it really unexpected? It had only been four years and, unlike with Kyo and many of the others, she had spent little time with Yuki, "I have to head back to where the rest of the students are waiting."

"Prince Yuki reigns once more. A fond adieu, your highness." Shigure bowed, making everyone around him roll their eyes, except for Tohru whose face turned a bright shade of pink. Akito just stood and watched Yuki walk away, glad that she had come this far, glad that the broken shards of the Sohma family were finally piecing themselves together again.

IIIII

"Father!" Arigatona and Tiako looked up from where both their pairs of eyes has been staring down at their footprints imprinting themselves in the dust.

"Yuki? Yuri?" Tiako watched as the man ran towards two girls who had dropped barrels of water on the ground and took off towards the man running towards them. For an instant she felt her blood begin to race faster within her veins. The two girls looked about the same age as Tiako, they also looked completely identical.

"Who's the girl?" One of the twins said, walking up to the confused Tiako who had just caught up to the congenial trio, and looking the newcomer right in the face, their noses practically touching. Up close, the twin looked exactly like Arigatona, down to the color of their irises and their dark hair.

"Yuri, be nice. If she came with Father then she must be his guest, and we should treat her with respect." The other twin, Yuki by default, walked over and pulled her sister away from Tiako by the shoulder.

Quickly, Yuri violently escaped from Yuki's grasp and crossed her arms, lifting her nose to the sky and huffing, "I don't care if she's Fathers guest; I want to know who the hell she is."

"Yuri, that's enough." Arigatona spoke up, rejoining the group, the two barrels of water underneath his arms, "Girls, this is Tiako. Tiako, these are two of my children. Yuki and Yuri Sohmatzu. They are both sixteen, like yourself. Come." Arigatona grinned and began walking. Tiako began to follow, a twin on each side of her.

"So. Who are you, and why are you with my Father? You have no right to tag along with him anywhere or to be welcome into our home." Yuri's arms were still crossed, and as she walked she glanced at Tiako up and down. Tiako knew that there was a reason she hated people. Being with people made her feel uncomfortable, and being talked down to made her feel just plain angry.

"My name is Tiako, like Arigatona said, and I am just a traveler. Nothing more." Tiako grumbled, grinding her teeth together. She wanted to punch Yuri's face in, but currently the positive things, like a bed and food, outweighed her desire to mortally wound the twin.

"Nothing more? Don't you dare get snippy with me you little…OUCH! Yuki, what the hell was that for?" Yuki had reached around Tiako and slapped Yuri upside the head so hard that Tiako was sure the slap echoed off of the nearby hill.

"You'll have to forgive my younger sister. She isn't much of a people person, and she has a horrible temper. It's best to just ignore her. Buddha knows that I do." Tiako giggled when Yuri's face fell into a mixed expression of defeat and irritation, and Yuki's eyes sparkled with victory.

"Girls. Behave." Arigatona didn't look back. Tiako would almost rather be walking up with him, but she heard the twin girls respond to their father with an 'of course, Father' and felt each of her arms being entwined with into each of the twins arms. With a sigh she decided that it may have been better if she had taken up Arigatona Sohmatzu's offer and decided to part ways with him at the last town.

IIIII

A/N – I know. It's been forever, but I am back at college and life has gotten incredibly busy. I hope that this is satisfactory for a while. I know where I am heading with this story, but not how to get there. It's like knowing the ending score of a football game but not knowing how anything happened. So because of that, and because of the fact college is now monopolizing my time, this story is going to be even more slow going than before. I'm sorry! I promise I will finish the story though. It will not be left incomplete.

Anyways, let me know what you think, aka – review, review, review


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